1. What is mobile marketing?
Mobile advertising, or mobile marketing, is simply the new way in which businesses are contacting customers to inform them about their products. Rather than being simply a broadcast media, these adverts are specifically designed, and targeted at a particular customer demographic, to improve the likelihood of turning a customer enquiry into a sale. Campaigns are designed for a variety of platforms, such as the Internet and smartphone or Internet-ready mobiles.
2. Why does my business need mobile marketing?
Quite simply, mobile advertising is the fastest growing advertising medium. The Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) revealed that mobile advertising was worth £28.6 million in 2008; by 2009 that figure, as reported by Enders Analysis in the Financial Times, had reached £46 million. Experts predict that by 2015, this will have risen to around £419 million.
In essence, there is no better way for a business to contact customers with information about their products in an immediate, meaningful and relevant way at a cost that is suited to a business, regardless of size. Mobile campaigns can be the most efficient and cost-effective way of turning potential customers into sales.
3. Just how targeted is mobile advertising?
This is the real strength of mobile advertising, in that the campaigns can be targeted in far more detail than ever before. Say you have developed an iPhone app aimed at teenagers; you could run an iPhone advertising campaign that not only targets iPhone users but can specifically target users within this demographic.
This is a far more effective use of advertising budget for many businesses. You are spending less than on a general broadcasts or advertisements to reach more of the people who are likely to be interested in buying your product. Instead of placing an advert on an undiscriminating platform that you hope will generate business, mobile advertising targets those people who are shown to be interested in the product or service you are offering.
4. Will it prove a profitable move for my business?
A clever, well-run and targeted mobile marketing campaign can certainly improve customer awareness of your product, which in turn can lead to greater sales. The Guardian newspaper reported that major companies such as Nike and Nestle are investing increasing amounts in mobile advertising to drive product sales. Nestle, for example, ran a mobile Internet campaign for its Kit Kat chocolate bar, which improved product awareness by 35 per cent. In addition, 600 people who visited the sites where the advert was featured were asked to name the first chocolate bar they could think of. Kit Kat’s results had improved by 247 per cent.
Of course, there is more to a successful mobile marketing campaign than simply coming up with a gimmicky advert or a clever competition. Targeting the right user group in a way that is relevant and meaningful for them, preferably in a relevant context, is vital. Luckily, business owners can call upon the expertise offered by mobile marketing specialists in order to ensure that their adverts are reaching the right potential customer base.
5. Is mobile marketing the new way advertisers will get in touch with customers in the future?
It seems likely that advertising will exist in its many and varied forms for a good while yet. Despite this and given the growth of the mobile phone market over the past decade, the spread of the Internet globally and the uptake in the number of smartphones and Internet-ready handsets in usage across the globe, mobile marketing looks likely to have an increasingly important role in the advertising strategy for any future business.
Russell Bickley, chief of the Mobile Marketing Association, revealed that mobile advertising as a medium has experienced rapid expansion in the past five years, outstripping the pace of such technological developments as the Internet in some areas. The Guardian newspaper further reports: “Growth is likely to accelerate as handsets equipped with new technology, including mobile broadband, become ubiquitous and consumer behaviour changes.”
In short, mobile marketing is certainly the marketing media for the future. It is targeted, immediate, cheap and yet able to react to market trends and the wishes of the customer. It can be interactive, competitive, informative or educational. It is truly the first form of advertising to fulfil these criteria and given the sheer volume of Internet-ready mobile phones in the world, the current mobile advertising market is just the start of bigger things to come.
For sustainable future growth, your business needs to be a part of that.
